Dave Cortese prompts a few fireworks

If you want to be San Jose’s mayor, it helps to be agile enough to jump to the head of the parade. That seemed to be the case this week when Supervisor Dave Cortese sent out a press release announcing that the board had approved his request to support the return of the July 4 fireworks to downtown San Jose. Cortese got a little airplay on radio for his proposal, which would commit $50,000 to the event and another $20,000 for education about illegal fireworks.

The problem with this version was that it skipped the background. The seeds of the project were sown nearly a year and a half ago in an informal breakfast discussion between Carl Salas, the current Downtown Rotary president, and Teresa Alvarado, the Santa Clara Valley Water district manager who lost a race for supervisor last year to Cindy Chavez.

Salas got excited about the idea and approached Councilman Sam Liccardo, a Cortese rival for mayor, and Chavez, one of his downtown neighbors. “We saw this as Rotary’s gift to the community,’’ said Salas, who describes himself as apolitical. “Cindy said, ‘We can get behind that.’ She’s been really helpful.’’ Salas says he expects $50,000 from both the county and the city, as well as corporate donations for the $200,000 event.

By email, Cortese responded this way: “I did acknowledge Rotary in my introduction of the item and in the subsequent radio interview,” he said. “I think Rotary should do its own release and declare victory!’’